Posts archived in This Week in the OAC

Book review:

Ethnographic films relating to death:
A new thread comes alive in the anthropology of death group.

Anthropology as science of survival:
Johannes Fabian’s Huxley memorial lecture stirs a few sensibilities.

On ethnographic field notes:
John McCeery invites us to participate as he looks at the notion of tradition in his field notes.

Satisfy your hunger for art with a thorough look at Arab contributions at the Venice Biennial 2011.

Careers advice:

Honor killing:
Acceptable code of conduct or outrageous tradition?

Anthropologists cast adrift:
Feeling Alone within your own University or profession?

OAC identity formation:
Are you ready to become part of a research project where the OAC is the case study?

Not your traditional Marxist reading:
“Rather like a Barbra Streisand farewell tour, [anthropology] just keeps carrying on“.

Sociology vs anthropology:
Whose side are you on?

A current thread on obscurity is bringing out the best of the OAC:


Action Group 4 OAC:
“The purpose of this group is to have a peg in the OAC for people to share what they can do, or would suggest can be done to carry on the usefulness of having 5000 anthropologists linked”..

UC Davis: anthropology and OWS:
A clampdown on protests in California sparks a reaction from OAC contributors.

Anthropologists’ oratory skills on trial:
Obscurity is shown to be a vital rhetorical device for academics.

NEW ONLINE SEMINAR:
The OAC’s new working paper is an unprecedented and extremely moving tale of an informant and anthropologist who became deep friends. The intricate and revealing bond explored in Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco’s, “Friendship, Anthropology”, involves both a dramatic romance and a cultural clash of legal and moral systems. The seminar will run from 21 November to 3 December.

THE LAST PUSH:
Thank you so much to all those that have already added their contribution to keep the OAC going. Unfortunately time is running out and we are still desperate to reach our target. Please help to keep this valuable resource alive. Still not convinced?

Theatre politics:
Politicans are currently putting on quite a show but what can be gleaned from their current performance… the emergence of a new world theatre state?

Anthropology of emotions:
A recent and active group with quite a different approach.

Anthropology in Africa:
Two recent threads try to breach the frontier. “Anthropology’s dwindling fortune” and “The future of anthropology in Africa“.

Winner of the “most active group award”: Dynamical Processes on Complex Networks.

OAC FUNDRAISER:
After a brilliant start, the OAC fundraiser is faltering. Please check out our new fundraising section for information on how the site is maintained and offer your support before the November 15th deadline.

Recent threads around the theme of the crisis and “Occupy” movement:
Occupy, Occupy and anthropologists, Anthropology of Finance, Crisis, Crisis and narrative, Did the machines win?, Agencements.

Older threads around the theme of what it is to be an anthropologist:
The lonely anthropologist, Who’s Open?, Citizendium and Wikipedia, Anthropologist divided, Anthropologist distracted.

And now for something completely different:
A lost little boy.

OAC FUNDRAISER:
One dollar from 500 members is enough to keep the site going for twelve months. Please check out our new fundraising section and offer your support before the November 15th deadline.

Design anthropology:
Listen to the soothing sounds of human creativity and discover the role of design.

Wallerstein:
Are we on the edge of the next big change?

Obviating postmodern criticism:
Priscila Santos da Costa “takes as evident Wagner and Strathern’s singularity against interpretivist Post-Modern Anthropology”. Did they successfully obviate  the ‘Crisis of Representation’?

Acoustic Space:
…and how it might provide a productive vantage on how cultures are intersecting through new media. Read on.

Teaching the riots:
Not a practical guide on how to avoid kettling but a call for your best first hand reports of the London riots.

New Book Review available:
What do you know about community arts?

The friendly banker:
They’re not all bad. How can you carry out an ethnography of banks without being biased?

The future of anthropology in Africa:
This important discussion is gaining momentum in the OAC forum.

What use is anthropology?:
A dreaded question raises its head.

NEW ONLINE SEMINAR:
Join us between 26 September and 7 October as the OAC kicks off a new season of seminars with Ryan Anderson on “Landscapes of Wealth and Desire”. Ryan will examine how significant moments in a landscape’s history (Baja California Sur) reshape and define its value, meaning and importance.

A new fossil find:
Lights up the Physical and Forensic Anthropology Group.

Photo essay:
An exhibition on Ecuadorian funerary folk art unfolds in the Anthropology of Death Group.

Where to study undergraduate anthropology:
Hints and tips.

Disgraceful choice:
So remind me again why I took that PhD.